


confrontation leads to change

by BookRockShooter



Series: post s6 things to help me cope [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friendship, Implied Relationships, Keith talks to Pidge and Hunk about Lance... oof, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Swearing, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 06, Protective Keith (Voltron), also random but wOW i love Lance sm, he deserves the world, hunk and pidge feel v bad after keith talks to them fyi, i just want these boys to be happy, is this ooc? idek anymore, yay drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookRockShooter/pseuds/BookRockShooter
Summary: Keith confronts Pidge and Hunk over their treatment of Lance. Later, he and Lance have another late-night conversation.-*post season 6*





	confrontation leads to change

**Author's Note:**

> Yay more VLD fic lmao (also,,, again,,, titles,,, ugh)
> 
> So in here, Keith confronts Pidge and Hunk and it's not a fun confrontation just fyi. Keith is salty and that makes Pidge salty and Hunk is confused and it ends with everyone upset bc things are said,, whoops,, but then Keith talks with Lance again so yay lmao
> 
> Ah I hope this is okay? I kept writing and re-writing and finally settled with this, sooo,, yeah
> 
> Enjoy, hopefully!

_“Okay, is that a planet we can land on?”_ Hunk says over the comms. The planet he’s asking about is relatively small and mostly covered in green with spots of blue scattered about. Keith thinks it looks like a healthier version of the earth and says so to Lance over their private comm. Keith knows his comment isn’t exactly hilarious, but Lance laughs anyway, and Keith smiles at the sound.

He and Lance have taken to talking on their private comm more often than talking to everyone else on the group comm. Keith has to admit that he prefers just talking to Lance (and Shiro and Krolia, since he’s sharing Black with them) to talking to the rest of the team. He has nothing personal against them, but Allura and Coran were always busy with Romelle, and Pidge and Hunk have been rubbing him the wrong way ever since their unnecessary comments towards Lance upset him. It’s gotten bad enough that just the sound of their voices make Keith unintentionally sneer at the comms, even though neither of them were ever able to see. Shiro and Krolia have seen it happen, though, and always ask what’s up. Keith still hasn’t said anything, but he thinks Shiro’s already made the connection.

_“Hang on,”_ Coran’s saying, but he’s interrupted by Shiro saying in surprise, “I recognize this planet.”

_“Yeah,”_ Pidge says, sounding amazed, and Keith has to force himself to not make a face. It’s kind of ridiculous, even he can admit. _“This is the jungle planet we found the Green Lion on!”_

_“Sooo… it’s inhabitable?”_ Hunk says, sounding almost desperate, and Coran replies, _“Yep! It also doesn’t seem to be currently populated by any specific species, so we’ll have the area to ourselves!”_

Keith can’t help the relief he feels at that. While he’s always interested in meeting alien races, the events that transpired just a little over a week ago are still taking their toll on everyone. The less they have to interact with other beings, the better.

“Alright,” he says aloud. “Let’s land for the day, then. We’ll check for supplies and take a break from flying.”

_“Don’t have to tell me twice,”_ Lance says tiredly, and the Red Lion speeds ahead of everyone else. Keith follows closely after, and soon the rest of the lions are flying towards the jungle planet.

Once everyone is landed, they all climb out of their respective lions. Keith makes a face at the heat and pulls his jacket off, then remembers that he’s wearing all black, so the lack of a jacket isn’t going to help at all. He turns to toss his jacket by Yorak (who’s curled up on the ground, napping) and spots Lance also taking his jacket off and almost falls over; Lance in short-sleeves is an unexpected but definitely welcome sight. He feels his face flush and he looks away, reaching up to push his hair back. He really needs to get it trimmed.

“Alright,” Allura says, pausing to glance around their surroundings. They’ve landed just outside of one of the jungle’s, and Keith squints suspiciously at it. He’s never trusted jungles, or forests, or anything of the like. Something could always be hiding in them; there’s a reason he’s continued to live in deserts almost his whole life. “First order of business: supply-gathering. Shiro and Pidge, you’ll each lead a group of us since you’ve both been here before. Shiro, Lance and I will go with you. Pidge, you’ll take Hunk and Keith.” Keith sighs silently to himself but doesn’t bother arguing. It’s not worth getting worked up over. “Coran, Romelle, and Krolia can stay here to keep watch of the lions. Pidge has communicators for everyone just in case any issues come up. Those of us looking for supplies are mainly looking for food, but also grab anything that you think may be of use. Is that alright with everyone?”

“Wandering a dark, scary jungle with you, Princess?” Lance says, grinning. “I’m down.”

Allura rolls her eyes but smiles back, and Keith feels a pang in his chest. He shuts his eyes for a second and shakes his head. This is ridiculous; Lance and Allura being together would be fine. It doesn’t matter that Keith may or may not have feelings for Lance, since nothing would ever happen between them. It’s fine.

Pidge gives everyone a little communicator that they clip to their shirts. Keith’s never seen them before and he wonders for a moment when she even built them. “Alright, is that everyone? Okay,” she finishes, walking back to Keith and Hunk. “Let’s go this way.”

They head in at the left of the jungle, and Keith glances over to Lance’s group to see them entering at the jungle’s right. Keith watches them disappear, then follows Pidge and Hunk.

“Okay, I remember there being some safe-looking fruit around here…” Pidge says, trailing off to walk over to some sort of bush-like plant. Keith pauses and looks around, wondering what kind of creatures they could come across.

“Doing okay, man?” Hunk says suddenly, and Keith has to catch himself before he does something stupid like growl at the other boy. That would definitely cause some issues.

“Fine,” Keith says shortly.

Hunk doesn’t look convinced, but he backs off. “Alright. Just wondering.”

Pidge walks back up to them, holding one of the fruits. It’s bright pink and round and Hunk eyes it warily. “Dare me to eat it and see if I get poisoned?” she asks with a grin, and Keith rolls his eyes.

“Can we just stick to the mission? I don’t want to be in here for too long.”

Pidge raises an eyebrow, then shrugs and says, “Whatever. Let me scan this real quick…” She whips out a small device and holds the fruit in front of it. After a few seconds, the device beeps and Pidge says, “Yep, it’s non-lethal. Let’s grab a few of these.”

They each take a few and hold them in their arms. Hunk frowns. “Uh, why didn’t we take, like, a bag or something? This feels silly.”

“I don’t think we have anything that would work,” Pidge says, glancing down at her armful of fruit. “Why don’t we take these back now and then come back for more? We’re not too far from the lions anyway.”

They do as Pidge suggested and take the fruits back to camp. They hand them off to Coran, who promises to keep them safe, and then they head back to the area that holds the plants for the fruit.

They’re gathering more when Pidge says, “Hey, Keith, I’ve been meaning to ask how you’ve been. What were those two years away like?”

“Slow,” Keith says, not wanting to get into detail with them. He’d rather talk to Lance or Shiro about everything, anyway.

“You seem weirdly irritable,” Pidge remarks. Keith takes a deep breath. “I mean, you were irritable before, but you seemed… I dunno, chiller when you got back? Besides yelling at Lance, at least.”

Keith can’t stop himself from muttering, “Like you really cared about that.” He continues to pick some fruit, ignoring the stunned expressions on both Pidge and Hunk’s faces.

“Excuse me?” Pidge snaps once she’s recovered, and Keith says calmly, “Oh, I don’t know, you guys have just seemed weirdly… rude lately. That’s all.” He’s barely keeping his anger in check. As pissed as he is at them, he knows blowing up at them will only make things more complicated. Besides, he knows Lance wouldn’t appreciate Keith getting angry on his behalf.

“W-What?” Hunk stammers. “What- that was… uncalled for, wasn’t it?”

Keith finally stops and turns to face them. Hunk looks upset and a little confused, and Pidge looks annoyed. _Do they seriously not know what they’ve been doing to Lance?_ Keith thinks, now even more irritated. “You mean, as uncalled for as your comments about Lance the other day?”

“What-?” Pidge pauses as she thinks back, and then realization falls over her face. “Are you talking about the stuff about Kaltenecker? I was trying to be funny, for the most part. I mean, would you trust Lance with your space wolf?”

“I would, actually,” Keith snaps, the fruit he’s holding falling from his arms. He takes a step forward, leaning in close. Hunk jumps back and Pidge shifts, but she continues to stare at him, eyebrows furrowed. “I would, because I know that Lance cares about keeping people and animals alive since he’s a good, kind-hearted person. I’d trust him with any life, including my own, and I can’t believe you guys apparently wouldn’t. Aren’t you supposed to be best friends?”

Hunk says, “Wait, we aren’t?” but Pidge speaks over him with, “What the hell are you implying? We are his friends. We didn’t ditch him for some other team. That was _you._ ”

Keith reels back, the words hitting him way too hard. He still feels bad whenever he remembers how genuinely upset the team was when he left them for the Blade, and he knows by now that Lance seemed to take it pretty hard. Pidge reminding him of it hurt, and now he can’t get Lance’s disappointed expression out of his head.

“I… look, I know that me leaving wasn’t… good on any of you,” Keith manages, shaking his head to clear it. His anger is slowly fading, and now he just wants to go back to his lion. “But you guys should’ve been there for him. From what I’m hearing, you guys haven’t been good friends at all.”

“He said that?” Hunk utters in a pained voice, and Keith winces when he sees that Hunk is close to tears.

“Uh… he’s not in the best head space right now, and yeah, you guys have… kinda been making it worse.”

Pidge’s face falls. “I… we had no idea.” She looks helpless, and Keith almost feels bad. Maybe he actually does. “We- we need to talk to him, let him know that we never really meant to hurt him. I thought he would’ve known.”

“Well, he didn’t,” Keith says bitterly. He picks the fruit back up and, facing away from them, says, “I think this is enough, yeah? Let’s head back.”

The other paladins follow him wordlessly back to their little campground. Once they’ve given the rest of the fruit to Coran, Keith heads over to Yorak and falls down beside him. Yorak perks up when Keith starts petting him, making a noise similar to that of a cat’s purr. Keith smiles a little.

When Lance and the others get back, Keith looks up in time to see Hunk throw himself at Lance and envelope him in a hug, crying, “Lance, buddy, I’m so sorry for making you feel bad!”

Pidge hugs Lance too, muttering, “We’re sorry, Lance. We never meant to hurt your feelings.”

Lance looks stunned, but he hugs them back and says, “It’s okay, guys. It’s okay.”

Keith just smiles softly at the sight.

The sun begins to lower a little while later, and Coran and Hunk manage to put together a nice dinner with the food they already had. They all sit together in a circle and eat quietly, everyone tired from wandering the jungles and flying for the past week. One by one, everyone finishes and heads back to their lion after bidding a soft “Goodnight.”

Krolia’s one of the last ones, and once she finishes, she stands up to leave. Keith smiles up at her and says, “Night,” and then she kisses his forehead and says, “Good night, Keith.” Keith stares at her in surprise, and she just smiles at him before walking away.

“Okay, that was pretty cute,” Lance says, and Keith turns to see that Lance has moved to sit next to him. He feels his face heat up at their close proximity and tries to ignore it.

“Uh, I guess,” he mutters, and Lance grins and bumps their shoulders together. Keith smiles back, still blushing but hoping that the darkness is hiding it.

“It’s cool that you’ve found your mom, y’know,” Lance continues. “I’m happy for you, man. I can’t wait to see my family again.”

Keith watches Lance carefully. His friend is staring up at the sky, a wistful look on his face. “And I’m sure they can’t wait to see you again, too.”

Lance snorts, but he’s smiling again. “Yeah, I’m sure they’ll be glad, but they’re gonna be pissed, too. My mom’s gonna yell at me for at least an hour, I’m sure. Tell me how irresponsible I was, going off to save the universe when I should’ve been at the Garrison.”

“I’d choose saving the universe over the Garrison any day, personally,” Keith admits. “Iverson sucked. I’d rather never see him again.”

“Me too, honestly,” Lance agrees. “Y’know what he said to me the day we saved Shiro?”

It suddenly hits Keith that, for him, that happened nearly three years ago. He can’t believe how crazy his life has become, all of a sudden. “God, that was forever ago,” he breathes, and Lance nods. “Uh, what did Iverson say to you?”

“He told me to not follow in your footsteps,” Lance says, and he looks really amused as he talks. “But then I did, that same day, even, and… honestly?” He looks right at Keith as he says, “I’m glad I did, Mullet. I miss my family, and the beach, and the earth in general, but… I don’t regret following you and helping Shiro. Voltron has been pretty cool, minus, well, a lot of stuff. But yeah. Forget Iverson.”

Keith really wants to kiss Lance. _But I can’t,_ he thinks, and so he settles with stammering, “You- you haven’t called me Mullet in a long time.”

“I mean, you can’t deny it now, right?” Lance teases, tugging at a strand of Keith’s hair, and Keith pushes his hand away, laughing even as his heart races. “It’s too long to be anything else.”

“Whatever,” Keith complains, but it’s worth it when Lance laughs. He smiles a little at that. “Uh, I’m gonna head to sleep now. Night, Lance.”

Lance stands up alongside Keith, and Keith notices that he’s still smiling. “Night, Mullet.”

“Ha ha,” Keith says sarcastically, and Lance just grins at him before heading to Red. Keith watches him go, then he goes back to Black.

He falls asleep curled up with Yorak and hoping that Lance is going to be able to stay as happy as he was today.

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty there's that
> 
> Again I just eventually stopped with this after rewriting a few times, and I hope this is okay; lmao
> 
> So, hopefully this was enjoyable to read! And I hope y'all have a good day/night! :)


End file.
